PRESS RELEASE MUSÉE CANTONAL DES BEAUX-ARTS DE LAUSANNE

14.10.201622.01.2017  

au cosmos 

cantonal des

de Lausanne

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Musée

Beaux-Arts  

 AugustStrindberg

August Strindberg – La Ville, 1903 – Huile sur toile, 94.5 x 53 cm Stockholm, Nationalmuseum © Hans Torwid / Nationalmuseum Stockholm

Sérigraphie Uldry SA – Lithographie DatatypeGraphisme chrisgautschi.ch

AUGUST STRINDBERG. From the Sea to the Cosmos 14.10.2016 – 22.01.2017

You are cordially invited to attend the press conference on Thursday 13 October 2016 at 11 am Opening reception Thursday 13 October 2016 at 6.30 pm

Press officer Loïse Cuendet, loise.cuendet@vd.ch Tel. direct: +41 (0)21 316 34 48

Press images: ftp://ftp.vd.ch/MBA/pub/presse/

Address Musée cantonal des Beaux-Arts, Lausanne Palais de Rumine, place de la Riponne 6 CH-1014 Lausanne Tel.: +41 (0)21 316 34 45 info.beaux-arts@vd.ch www.mcba.ch

Free admission

Opening hours Tues - Wed - Fri: 11 am – 6 pm Thurs: 11 am – 8 pm Sat - Sun: 11 am – 5 pm

Closed Monday Open: 24, 31.12: 11 am – 17 pm Closed: 25.12, 1-2.01

Public transport Metro M2: get off at Riponne-Maurice Béjart Bus 1, 2: get off at Rue Neuve Bus 7, 8: get off at Riponne-Maurice Béjart

AUGUST STRINDBERG. From the Sea to the Cosmos

The art to come (and go, like all the others!): Imitating nature almost; above all, imitating nature’s way of creating.«The New Arts! or The Role of Chance in Artistic Creation» (1894)

Internationally renowned as a writer and the author of plays like The Father and Miss Julie, August Strindberg (1849–1912) was also one of Sweden’s greatest visual artists : a self-taught painter and photographer, and a remarkable creator of images. The Musée cantonal des Beaux-Arts, Lausanne, is presenting the first-ever retro-spective of Strindberg’s art in Switzerland, where he stayed on a number of occasions. This is a rare opportunity to see his main masterpieces brought together in a single exhibition. From the early 1870s to the first years of the 20th century, Strindberg worked intermittently at his painting and photography, creating vigorous, powerful works that had no real equivalent at the time: landscapes in which, amid the unleashing of the ele-ments, sea and sky seemed on the verge of disintegration. At the same period he was de-veloping a new theory of art whose main text, « The Role of Chance in Artistic Creation », prefigured the ideas of the Surrealists. In photography, his quest for truth initially found expression in self-portraits and portraits of his friends and family, but in the early 1890s he adopted a more experimental approach, seeking to capture the invisible – the soul and the sky – on paper or glass.

THE EXHIBITION The exhibition is structured around Strindberg’s three painting periods – from 1872 to 1874, from 1892 to 1894 and after 1900 – and his photographic experiments: portraits and self-portraits (1886–1906), photograms (1890–1896) and cloud studies (1906–1907).

In the archipelago: 1872–1874 and 1892 The sole subjects of Strindberg’s early paintings were the sea and the land-scapes of the Stockholm archipelago, two recurring motifs in the oeuvre to come. After a break of almost two decades he went back to painting in 1892. In several pictures he focuses on a lone flower on a deserted shore ; the depictions are meticulous, but these works have often been interpreted as symbolic – as self-portraits or transcriptions of the artist’s solitude. The atmosphere of the paintings of this period varies from sunny tranquillity to sombre chaos.

August Strindberg. From the Sea to the CosmosPress release

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Berlin-Dornach-Paris, 1893-1894 Even when far away from the Stockholm archipelago Strindberg continued to make the sea the subject of his paintings, complementing his dark, threatening skies with raging waves. Dissolving the separation between sea and sky he brought forth a new substance made of spray and mist, in a viscous fusion roughly laid on with his palette knife and his fingers. During this period of intense activity Strindberg developed a theory of art based on painting, which he notably outlined in “The Role of Chance in Artistic Creation”. In constructing his images he let chance play the principal part ; in Wonderland (1894), for example, the forest giving onto the sea mutates into a subterra-nean grotto.

Strindberg in the 20th century : 1901–1905 When he returned to painting in 1901, Strindberg had just been through his so called Inferno crisis, the blackest period of his life. Settling in Stockholm again, he once more took up his portrayal of the sea around the archipelago, together with subjects inspired by his walks through the outskirts of the city. Composed of overlapping, almost parallel horizontal fields of colour, these works achieve a kind of synthetism which has led to comparisons with Symbolist stage sets.

Photographic portraits and self-portraits : entering the soul. 1886–1906“I look for truth in the art of photography,” Strindberg wrote, “intensely, as I look for it in many other fields.” At first he believed he had found this truth in a series of self-portraits and portraits of his family taken when he was living in Gersau, on Lake Lucerne in Swit-zerland. At the time he was playing several roles, as writer, father, gardener – and even Russian nihilist ! In search of a truth which, as he saw it, was no longer to be sought in mere mechanical reproduction of appearances, but rather in an intimate capturing of what truly was, he produced “psychological portraits” and “photographs of the soul”, images capturing the innermost character of his subjects.

Experimental photography : capturing the invisible. 1890–1896 In its quest for truth in the realms of the invisible, Strindberg’s photography took an experimental turn, moving closer to his scientific investigations and, above all, his passion for the occult. He tried to create reproductions of the stars by exposing photo-graphic plates at night, with no camera or lens ; and to capture directly on photographic paper the enigmatic images created by frost on a glass plate.

CATALOGUE August Strindberg. From the Sea to the Cosmos Paintings and PhotographsEdited by Camille Lévêque-ClaudetLausanne, Musée cantonal des Beaux-Arts and Les Éditions Noir sur Blanc, 2016, CHF 52.00

Excerpt from the catalogue “Strindberg, Sunday painter.” The heading for the article in the Tribune de Lausanne on 20 May 1962 was merciless, and brooked no debate : Strindberg was dismissed as a rank amateur. What exactly did this mean ? That his painting was trite, mediocre ? The host of Strindberg exhibitions since the early 1960s, the mass of articles and books devoted to his painting and photography, and the recent surge in value of his works on the art market would seem to indicate the contrary : his art is now generating interest not only from academics and museum curators, but also from collectors and the public. Yet he cannot be called a professional painter […] Baffling, at odds with traditional modes of interpretation, aliens on the Swedish art scene of the last quarter of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th : were his pictures no more than curiosities of no real artistic value ? Was he just a painter who couldn’t paint, a writer who just happened to paint ? […] Strindberg is an alchemist of painting. Just as the alchemist turns dross into gold, he transmutes into a picture a common piece of cardboard or a sheet of zinc whose surface is better suited than canvas to stand up to thick paint kneaded with the fingers or the palette knife. Just as he does not mask the emotional violence and ver-bal cruelty of his plays, he makes no attempt to beautify the painting surface ; on the contrary, he uses its flaws, its irregular shapes and its unevenness of surface to make his images harsher and more arresting. And the paint? He’s ready to thicken it even further with plaster and to achieve unheard-of effects by attacking it with a blowtorch. Strindberg did not submit to the diktats of his time in painting any more than to the rules of writing or his contemporaries’ scientific method : his rejection of the laws of natural philosophy and the conventions of art came together in his fusing of natural elements and his expression of their common origin […] He founded both a new painter-ly order and a new monism, demonstrating that everything is present in everything and everything can be changed into everything – and even, by chance, a writer into a painter?

Camille Lévêque-Claudet, « Maintenant je lance mes tableaux un à un, on va m’établir en peintre ». Strindberg, peintre par hasard ?», pp.19-27

August Strindberg. From the Sea to the CosmosPress release

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1849August Strindberg is born in Stockholm on January 22.

1869Writes his first play, A Name Day Gift, now lost.

1871His first stay on the island of Kymmendö in the Stockholm archipelago. There he discovers landscapes that will inspire his paintings.

1872Strindberg decides to become a writer. He attempts to make a living as a journalist and tries his hand at art criticism. Paints his first known picture, Les Ruines du Châ-teau de Tulborn [The Ruins of Tulborn Castle]. In the summer he goes to Kymmendö and draws from nature.

1873Spends the summer on Kymmendö, where he paints several coastal scenes.

1874Writes literary, theatre and art criticism for the daily Dagens Nyheter.

1876In October he spends three weeks in Paris looking into the new school of French painting and the life of Swedish painters living in the French capital. He discovers the work of the Impressionists and sees many plays.

1879In November, publication of his novel The Red Room.

1883In mid-September he and his family leave Sweden for France.

1884In January they move to Ouchy in Switzer-land. Strindberg publishes his new collec-tion of short stories, Married, for which he is charged with blasphemy in Sweden.

1885In late March the family moves back to France.

1886Strindberg returns to Switzerland in May, living near Othmarsingen, in the canton of Aargau. The Son of a Servant, the first vo-lume of his autobiography, is published at the end of May. Early in October he moves to Gersau, where he takes up photography and makes a series of portraits, alone and with his family.

1887 In early January the family leaves Gersau for Bavaria. In the summer Strindberg works on a French translation of The Father, a play he had begun in February, and sends it to Emile Zola. He and his family leave for Denmark, where he will live for eighteen months.

1888Publication of Miss Julie.

SHORT BIOGRAPHY August Strindberg

1889In January Strindberg undertakes scien-tific experiments. In late April he returns to Sweden, ending six years of voluntary exile.

1892He devotes his time to scientific experi-ments and painting – some thirty pictures in all. On September 30 he leaves for Berlin and for seven months dedicates himself to chemistry, painting and photography.

1894In Dornach, Austria, he paints intensely, while also engaging in photographic expe-riments.

1895In Paris he spends time with Paul Gauguin, Alphonse Mucha and the composer Frederick Delius.

1896During his stay in Paris he undergoes what has been called the «Inferno crisis». Psychologically disturbed, he is convinced that there is a plot against his life.

1897In Lund, after recovering from his breakdown, he begins writing Inferno in French.

1899On August 19 he moves to Stockholm, where he will spend the rest of his life.

1901He returns to painting, and continues until 1905.

1906With the help of photographer Herman Andersson, Strindberg makes his own camera (Wunderkamera) and works on life-size psychological portraits.

1907On November 26 the Intimate Theatre, founded by August Falck and Strindberg, opens in Stockholm.

1912On May 14 Strindberg dies of stomach cancer.

WRITINGS BY THE ARTIST Some quotations A subjective selection from the writings of August Strindberg.

I paint in my spare time. So as to master my material, I choose a medium-sized canvas, or, better still, a piece of cardboard on which I can complete the painting in two or three hours, while my inclination lasts.

I am governed by a vague design. I have in mind the interior of a shadowy wood, from where the sea can be seen at sunset Fine ! With the knife that I use for this purpose – I possess no brushes ! – I distribute the colours on the canvas and mix them so as to obtain the rudiments of a design. The opening in the centre of the canvas represents the horizon with the sea. Now the inte-rior of the wood, the network of branches and twigs, is extended in a group of colours, fourteen, fifteen, pell-mell but always in harmony. The canvas is covered : I step back and take a look ! Confound it ! I can see no trace of any sea ; the illuminated opening shows an endless perspective of pink and bluish light in which vaporous beings, without body or definition, float like fairies with trains of cloud. The wood has become a dark subterranean cave, barred by brambles: and in the foreground – let’s see – why, rocks covered with unknown lichens – and there, to the right, the knife has smoothed down the colours too much, so that they look like reflections in water. Well then! It’s a pool. Perfect! But above the water there is a patch of white and pink, whose origin and meaning I cannot explain ; One moment ! – a rose ! – The knife goes to work for a couple of seconds and the pool is framed in roses, roses, what a mass of roses !

«The Role of Chance in Artistic Creation» (1894)

I cannot, of course, refer to my unpublished manuscript, but will merely point out here that moonlight has a stronger effect on a silver bromide plate than sunlight. Further-more, that the light from a kerosene lamp has a stronger effect than daylight under

similar conditions. So what may be concluded from all this? Of X-rays that are ordinary rays, of the relative transparency of bodies, of photographing without a lens, of photographing with a camera and lens ? Well, at least this much, that physics and chemistry as presently constituted have yet to solve the problems of the world ; that the laws of nature, as they are called, are simplifications, dictated by simple people and not by nature, that the uni-verse still hides secrets from us and that mankind therefore has the right to demand a revision of the natural sciences, on which the X-rays have thrown a highly unsympathe-tic light.

«On the Action of Light in Photography» (1896)

August Strindberg. From the Sea to the CosmosPress release

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EVENTS AND ACTIVITIES GUIDED TOURS Thursday 20 October, 10 November, 8 December, 19 January at 6:30 pm Sunday 23 October, 20 November, 11 December, 22 January at 3:00 pm

Tours with a snack A guided tour (45 mins) followed by a snack Thursday 24 November, 15 December, 12 January at 12:30 pm Price: CHF 10.- (snack included, advance booking required)

Concert Piano recital by Meglena Tzaneva Right there in the exhibition: Strindberg’s favourites by Bach, Beethoven and Schumann Saturday 5 November at 3:00 pm

Painting workshop for adults «Cosmic Landscapes» Considering the colour of the universe, with artist Claudia Renna A video by Claudia Renna will be on show continuously in the museum education space (Cabane cantonale des Beaux-Arts). Saturday 12 November, 2 – 5 pm CHF 30.-, advance booking required

Art and Astronomy tour The sky seen through Strindberg’s works and in the light of the science of his time. In association with the Lausanne Observatory. Weather permitting, the tour will conclude at the observatory. Thursday 24 November at 6:30 pm

Reading Readings from one of the fathers of modern theatre, in the presence of his artworks. Thursday 1 December at 6:30 pm

Interdisciplinary study day Strindberg’s works and ideas addressed by specialists in the fields of theatre, music, photography, cinema, politics and philosophy. In association with the Centre des Sciences historiques de la culture, Université de Lausanne All welcome. Details: mcba.ch Friday 2 December, 9 am – 6 pm

August Strindberg. From the Sea to the CosmosPress release

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YOUNG VISITORS Cabane cantonale des Beaux-Arts Activities for all, based on the exhibition and the museum’s collection, in the new space devoted to museum education activities.

Hands-on workshop Ages 14–18 With artist David Gagnebin-de Bons: photography experiments that put the emphasis on chance and leave strange traces of the physical world… Wednesday 19 – Friday 21 October, advance booking required. Details: mcba.ch

Drawing tour for parents and kids Bring your sketchbook! A chance for kids and adults to chat about art and each other’s drawings. Followed by a snack. Wednesday 9 November and 18 January, 2 – 4:30 pm, advance booking required Age 6 and up

Swedish tales With the storytellers of L’Oreille Qui Parle Sunday 22 January at 3:00 pm Age 5 and up

Curator of the exhibitionThe exhibition has received generous support from Tetra Laval and Ferring

Under the high patronage of His Excellency Mr. Magnus Hartog-Holm, Swedish Ambassador to Switzerland

PRESS IMAGES

To download press material: ftp://ftp.vd.ch/MBA/pub/presse/

The White Mare II, 1892. Oil on cardboard, 60 x 47 cm. Stockholm, Nationalmuseum© Hans Torwid / Nationalmuseum Stockholm

Wonderland, 1894. Oil on cardboard, 72,5 x 52 cm. Stockholm, Nationalmuseum© Erik Cornelius / Nationalmuseum Stockholm

Double Picture, 1892. Oil on cardboard, 40 x 34 cm. Private collection© All rights reserved

Coastal Landscape, 1903. Oil on canvas, 76 x 55 cm. Stockholm, Nationalmuseum© Nationalmuseum Stockholm

Purple Loosestrife, 1892. Oil on canvas, 35 x 56 cm. Private collection© All rights reserved

Flooding on the Danube, 1894. Oil on panel, 44 x 33 cm. Private collection © All rights reserved

The Town, 1903. Oil on canvas, 94,5 x 53 cm. Stockholm, Nationalmuseum © Hans Torwid / Nationalmuseum Stockholm

High Sea, 1894. Mixed media on cardboard, 96 x 68 cm. Stockholm, Sven-Harrys konstmu-seum © All rights reserved

Night of Jealousy, 1893. Oil on cardboard, 41 x 32 cm. Stockholm, Strindbergsmuseet© All rights reserved

Seascape with Rocks, 1894. Oil on cardboard,39,5 x 30 cm. Paris, Musée d’Orsay © RMN-Grand Palais / Hervé Lewandowski

The Wave VII, 1901. Oil on canvas, 57 x 36 cm. Paris, Musée d’Orsay © RMN-Grand Palais (Musée d’Orsay) / Hervé Lewandowski

Celestograph, 1893-1894. Photogram on glass plate, 12 x 8 cm. Stockholm, Kungliga biblioteket © Andrea Davis Kronlund / National Library of Sweden

Self-portrait, Gersau, 1893-1894. Photograph on glass plate, 10 x 6 cm. Stockholm, Kungliga biblioteket © All rights reserved

Pack Ice on the Shore, 1892.Oil on panel, 25 x 34 cm. Private collection © All rights reserved

AUGUST STRINDBERG.From the Sea to the Cosmos 14.10.2016 – 22.01.2017